Milkman Dead, born on the day Robert Smith leapt from the roof of Mercy Hospital wearing blue silk wings, spends the novel learning to fly. Toni Morrison's third novel draws on African American folklore, Greek mythology, and the buried history of slavery to create a story about names, origins, and what it means to be free. The prose is dense with wordplay and symbolism, the characters unforgettable. Morrison won the Nobel Prize in 1993; this novel, along with Beloved, is the core of her achievement.